More often than not, the market is flooded with a wide variety of products you wish to buy. But not every product is so particular that it gets your attention, money, and even word-of-mouth.
When you look at the big picture, there are tons of brands in the market for every domain too, but there’s always one for which our holistic perception makes us trust and recommend the company without thinking twice.
If you could follow the minute difference of details in the two instances, you already know the distinction between User Experience and Customer Experience. If not, stick with us till the end to understand how these seemingly similar terms have many differences between them.
Getting To Know UX
User Experience (UX) is defined as the interaction of people with a particular product and their subsequent experience of the same. It is a concept that evolved to define and shape the experience that a customer has while communicating with a brand.
However, its horizons have expanded, and beyond customer journeys, UX now defines the degree of engagement with a particular product. So, coming straight to the current scenario, User Experience (UX) is more typically associated with digital products.
Among these digital resources, websites, mobile apps, IT software, etc., are the most prominent ones involving direct customer interactions.
Developing and maintaining a solid UX is done by an expert UX designer. A UX designer looks for data and statistics like click rates, success rates, abandonment rates, error rates, etc. User Experience (UX) is also confused with User Interface (UI).
The primary difference between both is that UI is the space where a user interacts with a brand, which may be via screens, pages, buttons, icons, etc.
An Important Fact: According to Amazon Web Services, 88% of online shoppers(based on the study conducted by smallbizgenius.net) reported that they would never even revisit a website where they experienced poor UX design. It tells you how crucial good UX is for your online business. But what is good UX in the first place?
Features of Good UX Design
Google itself has keenly described the characteristics of good UX design. As per Google and other experts, good UX fulfills the following:
- Simple Information Architecture
The organization of information, products, and everything else on the website is vital in shaping conversions. It is the reason why one of the most prominent characteristics of good UX design is well-organized information architecture.
The information present on your website is worthless if the target audience does not find it usable or searchable in the first place. Good UX design helps connect the functionality of a website, which is focused on accepting orders, with the content that it is curated to attract more viewers.
From market trends, it is pretty evident that those lethargic businesses in restructuring their websites and changing their information architecture are lagging in online sales.
- Interactive Design
A website with an interaction-oriented design is more likely to offer a good User Experience. Good interaction in terms of the feel, aesthetics, etc., is crucial to woo more people, keep them busy on the website, and influence their minds to make a purchase.
A design that is easily perceivable for the viewers and where feedback is processed and used mindfully to give a personalized navigation experience is best suited for online businesses.
- Effective And Efficient
A website with a good UX design will always be efficient and practical. It means that the website will provide only relevant information every time. But, at the same time, it will also be good enough to influence the viewer’s mind to attract them towards possible conversion.
In a nutshell, a good UX design will enable the user and the website owners to fulfill their final objective without causing any trouble to either of them.
Getting To Know Customer Experience (CX)
A single company can have multiple touchpoints that are essentially how a customer can connect with the brand. The User Experience (UX) defines the engagement of the user with a product.
However, the Customer Experience (CX) is the umbrella term given to the experience of the user after all his possible interactions with the company.
Professionals that manage the Customer Experience (CX) for a company are called CX Designers. The metrics that a CX designer needs to monitor closely include customer feedback, customer satisfaction, customer service ratings, customer effort score, etc.
One might wonder what difference the study of Customer Experience parameters and User Experience statistics will make. Working on a good CX will reap benefits like enhanced customer loyalty and strong word-of-mouth for all services offered by a brand.
Only a handful of companies in every sector can responsibly claim that their Customer Experience is pleasing. In most other cases, customers do not have a favorable opinion about the overall experience of interacting with companies, suggesting the urgency that brands need to improve their CX.
Significant Differences Between UX And CX
The focus of the interaction
For UX, the interaction of the user with a specific product is under focus, whereas for CX, the whole company and its touchpoints are considered. As a result, the customer’s overall experience of dealing with the brand is best represented by CX.
Type of work involved
As discussed above, CX designers work on metrics like mobile interactions, customer service, customer support, etc. In contrast, the UX designers work on customer metrics related to a particular product and are rarely concerned about the customer’s opinions about the whole brand. Eventually, UX proves to be a subset of CX when considering this aspect.
Testing
Testing existing UX and CX of the same organization also demands different approaches. Usability tests are the most common way to assess the User Experience, whose data is diligently analyzed by managers, marketers, and researchers.
Testing and measuring Customer Experience is a complex job involving an ongoing and long-drawn strategy for monitoring rugged performance and commerce metrics.
Final words
CX is simply an umbrella, and UX is only one of the entities sitting under it. User Experience will undoubtedly influence the Customer Experience, but it is certainly not the entire ‘experience’ itself. Therefore, both have their significance for online businesses, making it crucial for you to understand their difference in a better way.